Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
  • H01J9/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for the manufacture, installation, removal, maintenance of electric discharge tubes, discharge lamps, or parts thereof; Recovery of material from discharge tubes or lamps
  • H01J9/52—Recovery of material from discharge tubes or lamps
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
  • C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
  • C03B3/00—Charging the melting furnaces
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
  • C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
  • C03B5/00—Melting in furnaces; Furnaces so far as specially adapted for glass manufacture
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
  • C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
  • C03B5/00—Melting in furnaces; Furnaces so far as specially adapted for glass manufacture
  • C03B5/005—Melting in furnaces; Furnaces so far as specially adapted for glass manufacture of glass-forming waste materials
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B43/00—Obtaining mercury
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B7/00—Working up raw materials other than ores, e.g. scrap, to produce non-ferrous metals and compounds thereof; Methods of a general interest or applied to the winning of more than two metals
  • C22B7/001—Dry processes
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P10/00—Technologies related to metal processing
  • Y02P10/20—Recycling
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02W—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO WASTEWATER TREATMENT OR WASTE MANAGEMENT
  • Y02W30/00—Technologies for solid waste management
  • Y02W30/50—Reuse, recycling or recovery technologies
  • Y02W30/60—Glass recycling
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02W—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO WASTEWATER TREATMENT OR WASTE MANAGEMENT
  • Y02W30/00—Technologies for solid waste management
  • Y02W30/50—Reuse, recycling or recovery technologies
  • Y02W30/82—Recycling of waste of electrical or electronic equipment [WEEE]

Definitions

• This invention relates to a method of destruction of hazardous waste in solid form, for instance strip lights, mercury lamps and other types of light sources containing mercury, which substance is dangerous for the environment.
• This invention intends to eliminate the problems with known technique and provide a new method and a new arrangement for destruction of hazardous waste, which arrangement, due to its construction, gets a very big capacity and makes possible a very effective destruction of the hazardous waste, which usually comprises strip lights and mercury lamps.
• the new invention gives many advantages compared with known technique:
• the poisonous mercury is neutralised in a secure way by means of selenium, which is added to a reaction chamber outside the oven, whereas glass is re-cycled which is completely free from mercury selenide.
• the new invention makes also possible a re-cycling of metals from the destructed light sources.
• the invention is arranged in that way that the glass spontaneously leave the oven in melted form, which melted glass easily can be taken care of, whereas the mercury selenide are caught for crystallisation by means of a cooling device.
• the destruction process according to the invention is automated and completely closed, wherefore the working environment becomes extremely good.
• the step 1 of the process comprises feeding hazardous waste into an apparatus for dividing material into pieces, the hazardous waste being assumed to consist of used strip lights.
• the strip lights are collected to special tubes 1, which are known by the applicant's own international patent application PCT/SE96/00285.
• the tube 1 is intended to be placed in a first, essentially horizontal position in a frame 2, which together with the tube 1 constitutes an infeeding device for the strip lights.
• the tube 1 is intended in a mechanical way to move upwards in the frame 2 and to take an inclined position of about 45° angular distance from the former one, in which the strip lights 3 by their own weight via an air lock 4 fall down into an apparatus 5 for dividing the material into pieces, which apparatus comprises two longitudinal and circularcylinder-like means 6, which are contra-rotating, and which at their peripheries are provided with projections 7 for effective division into pieces.
• This division into pieces comprises step 2 of the destruction process and results in a pulverization of the material.
• a longitudinal, circularcylinder-like feeding out screw 8 which is intended to feed out the light strips, crashed into pieces, via a duct 9 at the bottom portion of the apparatus 5 for dividing the strip lights into pieces, which duct 9 has a connection with an opening 10 of the backwall 11 of an oven 12, where there prevails a temperature of 1350-1400°C, and where the melting down phase, step 3, takes place.
• the bottom portion 13 of the oven 12 inclines downwords about 10 degrees from the backwall 11 and forwards.
• the opening 18 On the inclined roof 16 of the oven 12 is at its front part a chamber 17 connected, an opening 18 being arranged between the oven 12 and the chamber 17.
• This chamber is under vacuum, the heavy metals being in gas form in the oven 12 being sucked into the chamber 17.
• the opening 18 has such a size (-0 50 mm) that the gas flow from the oven to the chamber can amount to approximately 5m /h.
• the reaction chamber 17 is in connection with a cooling device 20 via a duct 21, and this cooling device is also under vacuum, and therefore the mixed gas is sucked into the cooling device and is precipitated in the form a solid end product, namely mercury selenide which in principal is insoluble.
• the cooling of the mixed gas which can be denoted as step 5 of the process, can be made in several phases, and therefore the cooling device 20 comprises a plurality of units 20a-d.
• the new apparatus system functions in the following way, while pointing out that all process steps can be mechanized and be carried out automatically:
• the tube 1, patent applied for and filled with used strip lights, is placed in the frame 2, whereafter it is taken to the inlet position, where the strip lights fall down to the apparatus 5 for dividing the strip lights into pieces and is crashed there to pieces.
• the glass, crashed into pieces, and heavy metals in solid form are fed into an oven 20 by a feeding screw 8 and potential mercury gas, set free, is sucked into the oven 12 by the underpressure prevailing there. Due to the high temperature in the oven, the glass melts to a mass which spontaneously flows out of the oven at its front end, whereas the heavy metals are gased off from the mass and are sucked into a reaction chamber, which is connected with the oven 12, since there prevail an underpressure in this chamber, which is lower than the pressure of the oven. Into the reaction chamber selenium is added which due to the high temperature
• the new apparatus system is very effective and manages approximately 250 kg strip lights per hour.

Landscapes

• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Materials Engineering (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Metallurgy (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Geology (AREA)
• General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Processing Of Solid Wastes (AREA)
• Electrical Discharge Machining, Electrochemical Machining, And Combined Machining (AREA)
• Manufacture And Refinement Of Metals (AREA)
• Refuse Collection And Transfer (AREA)

Priority Applications (6)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=20407674

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (11)

Cited By (2)

Citations (3)

• 1997
  • 1997-07-07 SE SE9702625A patent/SE510781C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1998
  • 1998-07-07 PL PL33792998A patent/PL337929A1/xx unknown
  • 1998-07-07 PT PT98934052T patent/PT1009552E/pt unknown
  • 1998-07-07 EP EP98934052A patent/EP1009552B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1998-07-07 WO PCT/SE1998/001338 patent/WO1999004913A1/sv active IP Right Grant
  • 1998-07-07 AT AT98934052T patent/ATE226487T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1998-07-07 ES ES98934052T patent/ES2186182T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1998-07-07 DE DE69808939T patent/DE69808939T2/de not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1998-07-07 AU AU83656/98A patent/AU8365698A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1998-07-07 CA CA 2296588 patent/CA2296588A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1998-07-07 DK DK98934052T patent/DK1009552T3/da active

Patent Citations (3)

Non-Patent Citations (2)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events